Where Are The Former 'Real Housewives of Orange County' Cast Members Now?

Before New York, Atlanta, Jersey or Beverly Hills, there was Orange County—yes, The Real Housewives of Orange County kicked off the long-running Bravo franchise back in March 2006, following the personal and professional lives of a group of women residing in the O.C. area of Southern California.

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Though all of those original ladies have since departed the program as full-time cast members, a few—including Vicki Gunvalson, Jeana Keough and Jo De La Rosa—will be making guest appearances in the current eighteenth season of the show. But what happened to other former O.G. housewives like Lauri Peterson and Kimberly Bryant, or one-and-done cast members like Peggy Sulahian, Elizabeth Lyn Vargas and Quinn Fry? Here’s an update on all of those previously-featured cast members from RHOC, including when and why the California girls departed the Bravo series.

Where are the former cast members of The Real Housewives of Orange County now?

Kimberly Bryant (Season 1)

A main player in RHOC’s inaugural season, Kimberly Bryant decided to leave the full-time cast after Season 1, relocating to Chicago with her family. She appeared on the show in a guest capacity for Seasons 2-4 while she was still living in Illinois. She has kept a relatively low profile in the years since, even opting out of joining the original RHOC cast for a special 10-year reunion in 2016. It was reported that she and her husband foreclosed on their home back in 2013, but she hasn't made headlines since.

Related: Where Are The Former 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' Cast Members Now?

Jo De La Rosa (Seasons 1-2)

RHOC fans remember Jo De La Rosa—and her relationship with then fiancé Slade Smiley, who would later go on to date a fellow OC-er Gretchen Rossi—from the first two seasons of the Cali-set series. De La Rosa exited the series as a regular cast member in 2007 when she and Smiley’s engagement ended, though the pair continued their reality career with the Housewives spin-off Date My Ex: Jo & Slade. She is now married to musician Taran Gray, and 17 years after her RHOC debut, Jo will be returning to the franchise as a guest star in Season 18.

Related: Is The Real Housewives of New Jersey Getting a Whole New Cast?

Vicki Gunvalson (Seasons 1-13)

One of the mainstays of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Gunvalson has given fans some of the most iconic fights and memorable one-liners in the show’s history. Vicki departed the series as a main cast member after Season 13, believing that Bravo was after “newer blood” for the show. However, she hasn’t cut ties with the network that made her a reality star. She has since come back as a “Friend Of” in RHOC Season 14 and a guest star in Seasons 17 and 18. She was also on the ill fated and never aired fifth season of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, which we will most likely never get to see.

Related: The 10 Most Explosive Fights from 'The Real Housewives of Orange County'

Jeana Keough (Seasons 1-5)

A former actress, model and Playboy Playmate, Jeana Keough was an original cast member on RHOC and made regular guest appearances on the series even after departing as a full-time member. After leaving the show, Jeana divorced her ex-husband Matt Keough in 2019 following a 15-year separation. She also became a grandmother, as her daughter Kara welcomed two children with NFL player Kyle Bosworth. Jeana and Kara made headlines in July 2024 when the daughter called out her reality star mother for posting heavily edited pictures on social media.

Related: Heather Dubrow Shares the No. 1 Piece of Advice She Learned from Raising 3 LGBTQ+ Kids

Lauri Peterson (Seasons 1-4)

A staple of the RHOC cast for the show’s first four seasons, Lauri Peterson hasn’t appeared on the series since her guest-star cameos in Seasons 5 and 8. Since her exit, Lauri has been focused mainly on her family, spending time with her husband George and her three children Ashley, Sophie and Joshua. Sadly, Josh—who Lauri had adopted in 2015 amid his struggles with substance abuse—lost his battle with addiction and passed away on March 31, 2024, at the age of 35. “No one can ever prepare you for this feeling of such deep loss. Every fiber in my body hurts,” Peterson shared on social media.

Tammy Knickerbocker (Seasons 2-3)

A full-time Housewife during Seasons 2 and 3, Tammy Knickerbocker chose to leave the show to focus on her grieving daughters Lindsey and Megan—Tammy’s ex-husband Lou tragically was killed in a car accident in 2007—and to expand her self-owned business. Knickerbocker will reunite with her old co-star Tamra Judge and the rest of the OC ladies as a guest star in Season 18. She recently reflected on rejoining the franchise while commenting on a reunion picture on Tamra’s Instagram: “Was thinking I had my 40th bday on Bravo and can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” Knickerbocker wrote. “Bravo gave me such amazing memories, lifetime & New friends.

Quinn Fry (Season 3)

Fry joined The Real Housewives of Orange County midway through its third season, but was not asked back for Season 4: "Bravo is making a few cast changes," she reportedly posted to her MySpace at the time. "I must have not been the right fit on the show or too old or whatever." (She did, however, make guest appearances for the following three seasons.) Post-RHOC, Quinn moved to North California to spend time with her daughter Shannon and her four grandkids.

Lynne Curtin (Seasons 4-5)

SoCal native Lynne Curtin became a Housewife during the middle of RHOC Season 4 and retained her main-cast status through Season 5. After her exit, she filed for divorce from her husband, Frank, not once but twice—when the first 2012 case didn’t stick because Frank never appeared in court, Lynne refiled five years later. The family troubles continued in 2018 when her daughter Alexia was charged with possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia. More recently she's been promoting her jewelry line and hanging out with other former RHOC cast members according to Instagram.

Gretchen Rossi (Seasons 4-8)

A RHOC star from Seasons 4 and 8, Gretchen Rossi reportedly left the series because she wanted to focus on having a baby with her partner Slade Smiley. After being publicly open about her IVF journey, Gretchen welcomed daughter Skylar in June 2019. The couple went through a tragedy in February 2023 when Slade’s young son, Grayson Arroyo-Smiley, passed away following a long battle with brain cancer. Gretchen honored Grayson on social media and wrote that his passing prompted her to be “clear going into 2024, of what I want out of this life, how and who I want to do it with, and what is most important.”

Alexis Bellino (Seasons 5-8)

We’ll catch up with Alexis Bellino—who was cast as a California Housewife from Seasons 5 through 8—on RHOC this season and thank the TV gods for that. Following her divorce from ex Jim Bellino in 2018 after 13 years of marriage, Alex became engaged to Andy Bohn in December 2020 but called things off in September 2023. She then began dating John Janssen, who you might remember as the ex of Bellino’s former OC co-star Shannon Beador, which means plenty of drama ahead for the women this season.

Peggy Tanous (Season 6)

The holistic-minded Peggy Tanous only lasted one season (the show’s sixth installment), leaving after frequent conflicts with co-star Alexis Bellino (whose husband Peggy had a previous relationship with) reportedly worsened her depression. Following her time on the show, Tanous worked on a 2016 documentary called When the Bough Breaks, in which she and women like actress Brooke Shields, singer Carnie Wilson and celebrity chef Aarti Sequeira shared their experiences with postpartum depression.

Lydia McLaughlin (Seasons 8 & 12)

When self-proclaimed “world traveler, fashion aficionado and digital darling” Lydia McLaughlin announced that she would be withdrawing from RHOC after Season 8, she assured Bravo fans that there was “no epic story” behind her exit. She simply needed a break. She wrote on her blog OC Lydia: “RHOC has given me a great platform and I'm grateful for that. However, I feel like I can only handle this show one season at a time.” She would return to the program, albeit four years later, for Season 12, though she only lasted for one season then, too. Since her second departure, Lydia has been working on the luxury men’s magazine NOBLEMAN with her husband Doug and raising their three boys.

Lizzie Rovsek (Season 9)

According to her Instagram bio, RHOC alum Lizzie Rovsek has been busy as a “health & wellness coach,” an “integrative health coach,” a podcast host and a “boy mom.” She shares sons Preston and Kingston with ex-husband Christian Rovsek. While she left the show after Season 9, she appeared periodically as a “Friend Of” and guest star from Seasons 10 through 15.)

Meghan King Edmonds (Seasons 10-12)

After starring on RHOC for three seasons between 2015 and 2017, Meghan King Edmonds announced her departure on her blog, saying that she wanted more time with her family. Good timing, because just six months later, she and her husband, former St. Louis Cardinals baseball player Jim Edmonds, welcomed a pair of twin sons, Hayes and Hart. In October 2019, however, she and Jim split after five years of marriage when he was caught sexting another woman. In the aftermath of her divorce, Meghan dated several men including Christian Schauf and Will Roos, but her most notable relationship was with lawyer Cuffe Biden Owens, who she wed in 2021 but divorced a year later.

Kelly Dodd (Seasons 11-15)

"I had a great five years on RHOC," Kelly Dodd posted on Twitter when Bravo let her go in June 2021. She was reportedly dismissed from the franchise after making politically incorrect jokes and speaking out against COVID mask mandates. (“Ultimately, I got fired because of myself, I’m the one who got myself fired,” she said on a 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live. “I was causing [Bravo] a lot of grief.) Since her reality TV run ended, Dodd married former Fox News reporter Rick Leventhal, with whom she hosts a YouTube podcast called The Rick & Kelly Show.

Peggy Sulahian (Season 12)

When Peggy Sulahian debuted on the premiere of RHOC Season 12 in 2017, she made Bravo history as the franchise’s 100th Housewife and its first Armenian-American star. Though historic, her time on The Real Housewives of Orange County wasn’t long, as she announced that she wouldn’t be returning for Season 13. In the years since, Peggy has launched a line of hair products and continues to live in the exclusive Crystal Cove area of Orange County with her husband Diko and their three children, Giovanna, Gianelle and Koko.

Braunwyn Windham-Burke (Seasons 14-15)

Former Housewife Braunwyn Windham-Burke has seen a lot of change in her life since her two-season run on the show ended in 2021. A year later, the mom of seven filed for divorce from husband Sean Burke after 23 years of marriage and began dating her girlfriend Jennifer Spinner. (In 2020, Windham-Burke came out as gay and was in an “open marriage” with Sean thereafter.) The now-engaged couple has also relocated from Orange County to Franklin, Tennessee. “Things are really different now, but they’re also really good,” the 46-year-old TV personality told Us Weekly.

Elizabeth Lyn Vargas (Season 15)

The sole season that Elizabeth Lyn Vargas appeared on, RHOC Season 15 was a weird one for the franchise as it was filmed during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Despite filming during COVID and not really getting to know all the ladies fully, this past year has been the most extraordinary, amazing and beautiful experience of my life,” Vargas wrote in her exit announcement on Instagram in 2021, having been let go alongside Kelly Dodd and Braunwyn Windham-Burke. “I am so proud of the work we have done and the friendships we were able to build.” Offscreen, Vargas found herself in a major legal drama in 2023 after her ex-boyfriend Ryan Geraghty was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting and extorting the former reality star.

Related: Shannon Beador's DUI Drama on 'Real Housewives of Orange County', Explained

Jen Armstrong (Season 16)

A one-season wonder, Dr. Jen Armstrong was fired by Bravo after appearing in Season 16 of the franchise. At the time, the cosmetic dermatologist posted on social media that she was “stepping away from RHOC” to focus on her family and her work, but that she was “so grateful to have the privilege to talk about my father, my kids and a real modern relationship on national television.” And speaking of that modern relationship, Jen initially filed for divorce from husband Ryne Holliday after eight years of marriage, but happily revealed to Reality Tea in April 2024 that the couple was “back together.”

Noella Bergener (Season 16)

Like fellow Season 16 star Jen Armstrong, Noella Bergener came and went quickly in The Real Housewives universe. “After a wild season of ups and downs, I will not be returning to The Real Housewives of Orange County,” Bergener wrote in an Instagram Story in July 2022. “Thank you to all of the fans for all of the love and support during quite possibly the hardest year of my life. I am looking forward to brighter skies ahead and can’t wait to share what’s next.” Happily, one of those life events included a marriage proposal from boyfriend Bobby Schubenski in October 2023.

Next, 'Real Housewives of Orange County' Season 18 Gets a Release Date and Trailer